Your wedding day is supposed to be your day — one of the most pivotal days in your lives.

Right?

If that’s really true, then why not join the throngs of couples who are choosing to live out wild, fanciful or downright silly dreams in conjunction with their nuptials? Doing so could have a practical benefit: It could save you big bucks. In these recessionary times, many have been shunning lavish weddings and opting for unique ones instead.

Here are 12 recent examples of utterly wacky — and utterly memorable — weddings. Click “next” at the left to start your (strange) trip down the aisle.

Holy matrimony, Batman!

Adam Gerrard
/
SWNS

For those of you out there who always sensed that Batman and Wonder Woman would make a great couple: It’s happened!

On July 31, Sharon Wetherell and Neil Vaughan of Devon, England, tied the knot while all dressed up as their favorite superheroes. As “Wonder Woman” theme music blared, Wetherell, 40, made a grand entrance at the ceremony wearing blue hot pants, a red corset, flashy boots and a tiara and veil that cost her about $160. The groom’s face-obscuring Batman costume set him back about $290.

The couple’s friends and family also got gussied up as superheroes. Iron Man, the Incredible Hulk, Robin, Poison Ivy, Lara Croft, the Joker, Bananaman and the Incredibles were all in attendance.

“Our wedding was absolutely amazing and it cost us less than some couples would spend on just the dress,” Mrs. Vaughan said in the British newspaper The Daily Mail. “We were not allowed to see each other’s costumes before the big day, but when I did see Neil he looked fantastic as Batman. ... It was such a great day.”

Tracey and Vivian Williams, a happy couple from Wales, tied the knot in May by dressing up as two of their favorite movie characters: the green ogres Shrek and Princess Fiona. Tracey Williams, 33, told the British newspaper The Daily Mail that the themed wedding idea suited her and her new husband perfectly.

“Our friends always used to say we looked like the characters when we went on nights out,” she said. “Even though Shrek and Fiona are both green ogres, we didn’t take it offensively because we like them so much.”

The couple actually saw a “Shrek” movie on their first date and have been loyal fans ever since. To get ready for the big day, the pair covered themselves in green body paint and affixed fake green ears to the tops of their heads. Tracey donned a bright red wig to complete the Princess Fiona look, and Vivian sported checked trousers.

The Williams’ wedding guests got in on the fun, with the best man dressing up as Monsieur Hood, the bride’s father going as Lord Farquaad, the bride’s mother playing the Fairy Godmother and the maid of honor playing Snow White.

An Iowa couple whose passion for bowhunting encouraged Cupid's arrow to strike wore camouflage to blend in with the wooded backdrop at their treetop wedding.

Kim Silver, 42, dressed in a silk gown made by camouflage specialists Mossy Oak, and her 61-year-old groom, Marvin Hunter, was dressed in camo shirt and pants at the June nuptials.

They said their vows atop a tree stand hunting platform. The bride and groom occasionally punctuated the ceremony by firing arrows at targets. Hunter said the couple had always joked about getting married on a tree stand. Silver said the pair hunt together so much that the camo wedding "just seemed like the right thing to do."

Most couples wait until the reception before breaking out into the Funky Chicken on their wedding day, but Kevin Heinz and Jill Peterson figured, why wait to unleash their unbridled joy?

The 28-year-olds floored their wedding guests by having their whole bridal party — including seven bridesmaids, five groomsmen and four ushers — boogie down the aisle in a choreographed dance more at home in a Broadway musical than in a somber church.

Groomsmen split into sides as Heinz did a somersault in front of the wowed crowd — and the gown-clad Peterson quickly followed, shaking her hips to Chris Brown’s “Forever” while pumping her bridal bouquet into the air during the June 20, 2009, ceremony in St. Paul, Minn.

The wedding party rehearsed the dance for just 90 minutes.

Of course, some things are too good to keep to yourself. And when Kevin posted the wedding dance routine on YouTube, it quickly became a viral hit, with hundreds of thousands of people sharing in the couple’s novel way of showing their matrimonial joy.

Some people think five or six bridesmaids are a lot. But how about 110? Jill Stapleton, an Ohio gymnastics teacher, set a world record in June when she invited all of her young students to be her bridesmaids at her wedding.

“We were actually going to go away for our wedding but this wedding day is more important to a lot of these little girls and boys back here that have made my dreams come true,” Stapleton said. “This is our dream wedding.”

Stapleton married Chad Greenhill, a Marshall University cheerleader. The previous record was 90 bridesmaids.

An aisle of light bulbs, grills

Courtesy Audwin Joaquin Mosby

The bride wore white. The guests wore orange smocks.

A Southern California couple wed in June in front of more than 100 guests at a Home Depot store where they work.

The wedding party for 56-year-old Carolyn Weatherly and Audwin Mosby, who’s 55, marched down an aisle of light bulbs, grills and paint to the outdoor garden section.

A wedding arbor and stage had been built from the store’s lumber and supplies.

The bride said the store in Lake Forest is like a second home and her colleagues are like family.

"I feel awesome," Mosby told the Orange County Register. "This is the best thing that has happened to me in a long, long time."

Voodoo Doughnut, a wildly popular indulgence with two locations in Portland, Ore., has an entire menu dedicated to wedding services. That menu includes a variety of matrimonial options, such as this “Legal Voodoo Wedding” package for $200: “Legal wedding ceremony, coffee & doughnuts for 24 people, 700-square-foot chapel, free parking & doughnut centerpiece.”

The doughnut shops have married off more than 300 couples, sending hearts racing with both romance and sugar intake. Pictured here are Jared and Jerri Guinther enjoying their sweet nuptials.

Jaws of love

WNBC

Talk about taking the plunge. April Pignataro and Michael Curry opted to be lowered in a steel cage into a shark tank to exchange their wedding vows in June.

The bride wore a white wetsuit; the groom wore a black one. The experienced divers spoke their vows into radio headgear transmitted to a minister outside the tank while about 75 guests watched from behind glass. The 120,000-gallon tank at Atlantis Marine World in Riverhead, N.Y., includes sand tiger sharks, nurse sharks, moray eels and a massive Queensland grouper.

Both Pignataro and Curry said the concept of a shark tank wedding thrilled them. “We both love the ocean, we love the water ... and yes, the idea of an underwater wedding, not to mention one surrounded by sharks at an aquarium, is different and unique, but that is also exactly who we are,” Pignataro told NBCNewYork.

'I do' in Aisle 2

Mike Stocker
/
SunSentinel.com

One couple decided to tie the knot where they first met: Whole Foods Market.

Jack Frankel, 75, and 67-year-old Fina Nikolos met in May 2009 at the supermarket in Coral Springs, Fla. It had been raining when Frankel noticed a beautiful woman pass him. Nikolos offered to walk him to his car with an umbrella. He later thanked her by taking her out to lunch.

In January 2010, the two returned to the place where their love began for a small wedding ceremony in the store's cafe. About 40 people attended the ceremony as store employees and customers watched and smiled. The couple held each other close during the ceremony, shedding a few tears. They also exchanged emotional vows. Nikolos was too overcome to finish hers aloud.

According to the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, this was the first time customers wed in a Whole Foods Market in Florida, though employees have gotten married there.

Frankel told reporters that the most irresistible thing about his bride is her eyes. “She looks at me with those Spanish eyes and I melt,” he said.

Why don’t more bridal magazines suggest this as the perfect theme for an October wedding?

In October 2009, Jack Holsinger, 61, and Connie Spitznagel, 44, dressed as pale-faced vampires for their Halloween-themed ceremony at a haunted house near Cleveland, Ohio. Holsinger arrived in a coffin inside a hearse, and the coffin was carried to the altar by six pallbearers. Minister Greg Kopp was dressed as Jason in the "Friday the 13th" movies. After the vows were exchanged, he ordered Holsinger not to kiss his new bride but instead to bite her on the neck.

The couple vowed to love each other and haunt and howl at the moon together. Like typical mortal couples, the groom said he just wanted his bride to be happy.

“This is her first wedding,” Holsinger said. “She had a common-law marriage the first time around, so she never really got a wedding. It’s what she wanted and it’s about her. It’s her time. Whatever she wanted.”

Will you Mario me?

msnbc.com

Proving that love is a game that two can play — a video game, that is — Bobbi VanZante and Elijah Slagter of Pella, Iowa, decided on a unique theme for their wedding: Super Mario Brothers. Slaget, the groom, will dress as Mario, of course, and VanZante will be costumed as the lovely Princess Peach.

The father of the bride will be dressed up as Bowser, even though he’s the villain of the Mario universe. “It’s kind of part of the game,” VanZante explained to NBC’s Megan Reuther. “Bowser and all his buddies steal Princess Peach.” So who better to give the bride away to her groom?

VanZante’s mother, Lori Mullen, was good-natured about the Mario madness, which included such details as making turtle shells out of bicycle helmets. “It fits both of them,” she said. “It’ll be a fun day and good remembrance.”

Video: With this bargain, I thee wed at T.J. Maxx

Transcript of: With this bargain, I thee wed at T.J. Maxx

MEREDITH VIEIRA, co-host:Back at 8:37. From the location to the food and fashion, everyone has been talking about last weekend's big
Clintonwedding
. But not every bride and groom goes for a traditional setting. TODAY national correspondent
Amy Robach
is here to explain.
Amy
, good morning.

AMY ROBACH reporting:You can say that again,
Meredith
. Most couples get married in a church or a reception hall, booking them months, even years in advance. And then there are these couples. A
wedding
is a milestone in a couple's life, but saying "I do" the traditional way is starting to seem old-fashioned. Conventional ceremonies are being tossed aside as couples look for innovative ways to personalize their
big day
.

Ms. CARLEY RONEY (theknot.com):People are desperate for ways to make their
wedding
more unique and more personal than the
wedding
you went to last week.

Unidentified Man #1:Jedi
, everybody, welcome.

ROBACH:From picking a theme...

Man #1:I now pronounce you......and husband and wife.

ROBACH:...to dancing down the aisle,
wedding
fever keeps spreading.
Voodoo Doughnuts
, a
Portland
,
Oregon
, based doughnut shop, has an entire menu dedicated to
wedding
services. Since opening in
2003
, they've held over 300 weddings.
Home Depot
has seen their fair share of matrimonial glee, several in the last couple years.

Unidentified Woman:I like the out-of-the-box thinking, it's a fun, you know, memorable...

Ms. LISA SATAYUT:A lot of my life lessons are connected to
T.J.Maxx
, like I learned the value of a dollar. And any given day, I could walk into a
T.J. Maxx
and I would see my aunt, my grandma, my sister, it would be like a family reunion. He knows what the store means to me and when he goes traveling, he'll only get a hotel if there's a
T.J. Maxx
within five miles.

Mr. ELLIS:For us, we feel like we're being true to ourselves in getting married at a place that we do have a bond at.

Ms. SATAYUT:When I walk down the aisle, I might skim the shoes, but I'm going to try my hardest not to stop. But you're a lot better than a pair of shoes.

Mr. ELLIS:Ah.

Ms. SATAYUT:He's a lot better than a pair of shoes.

ROBACH:So did
T.J. Maxx
.

Ms. SONYA COSENTINI (T.J. Maxx Spokesperson):We have to make this happen no matter what. She said that this would be her dream
wedding
and have to make someone's dream
wedding
come true.

Mr. JEREMY BARTUS (T.J. Maxx):She's like literally in here at least once, twice, three times a week.

Mr. ELLIS:I feel like I'm already married to her, so we're just making it official, I guess.

Ms. SATAYUT:And I
'll still pick out his clothes and stuff.

Mr. ELLIS:And I
'll let you shop.

Ms. SATAYUT:Deal.

ROBACH:I love those pictures that they're going to have...

VIEIRA:Oh, I think it's great.

ROBACH:...of the shoe aisle behind them on their -- on their coffee table, it's going to be hilarious. But we should mention -- we mentioned that
Home Depot
and some of these other places have lots of weddings, that
wedding
was actually...

VIEIRA:First.

ROBACH:...a first for
T.J. Maxx
.

VIEIRA:Yeah, and when she said she loved him more than a pair of shoes...